Gay Culture Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. An archival protest poster shows a pink triangle above the words “SILENCE = DEATH.” Which activist organization is most closely associated with that image?
The Mattachine Society
PFLAG
The Stonewall Veterans’ Association
ACT UP
2. A historian finds coded vocabulary once used among gay men and performers in Britain, including words such as “bona.” What language variety is being studied?
Swardspeak
Polari
Ballroom slang
Cockney rhyming slang
3. A film class is examining a documentary about New York City’s late-20th-century ballroom communities, including houses, voguing, and competitive categories. Which film are they most likely watching?
The Celluloid Closet
Milk
The Times of Harvey Milk
Paris Is Burning
4. A researcher reads about activists calling themselves the “Lavender Menace” at a 1970 protest. What exclusion were they primarily challenging?
The exclusion of gay men from military service
The censorship of gay literature by publishers
The marginalization of lesbians within the mainstream feminist movement
The lack of government funding for AIDS research
5. A performer uses deliberate exaggeration, theatrical artificiality, and playful seriousness to turn conventional taste into spectacle. Which aesthetic best describes this approach?
Camp
Passing
Cruising
Realness
6. At a memorial exhibit, a visitor sees large fabric panels bearing names, photographs, and personal objects commemorating people who died of AIDS. What project are they viewing?
The Legacy Walk
The Pink Triangle Park memorial
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
The Stonewall National Monument
7. Who designed the original rainbow flag unveiled in San Francisco in 1978?
Keith Haring
Gilbert Baker
Cleve Jones
Harvey Milk
8. Which author wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray and was later imprisoned following trials related to his relationships with men?
Oscar Wilde
Christopher Isherwood
James Baldwin
E. M. Forster
9. Which achievement is specifically associated with Harvey Milk?
He became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California
He organized the first Stonewall protest
He founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
He created the first AIDS Memorial Quilt panel
10. An archive displays Gilbert Baker’s original eight-stripe rainbow flag beside the later, widely used six-stripe version. Which colors appeared in the original but not the six-stripe version?
Black and brown
Hot pink and turquoise
Gold and silver
White and gray
11. Which description best identifies the Daughters of Bilitis, founded in San Francisco in 1955?
A drag troupe that developed modern voguing
A direct-action organization created during the AIDS crisis
A legal group formed to challenge military discharge policies
An early lesbian rights organization in the United States
12. During a drag performance, one person humorously points out another person’s flaws directly and with verbal skill. Which term best fits?
Passing
Reading
Cruising
Voguing
13. The 1969 uprising associated with the Stonewall Inn took place in which city?
New York City
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Chicago
14. A ballroom competitor enters a category judged on convincingly presenting a particular identity, occupation, or social role. Which concept is central to the category?
Lip-syncing
Reading
Realness
Shading
15. A 1950s archive contains newsletters from the Mattachine Society. Which movement would provide the most relevant context for those materials?
The AIDS direct-action movement of the late 1980s
The British campaign against Section 28
The early U.S. homophile movement
The ballroom house movement
16. At a ballroom event, a newcomer is invited to join a “house.” What does that usually mean in ballroom culture?
They have been hired to manage the event venue
They have signed with a dance-focused record label
They have qualified to judge every competitive category
They are joining a chosen-family group that mentors and competes together